Page 2 Advertisements Column 6

Hokitika Guardian, 7 August 1923, Page 2

STOOPING GIRLS. LONDON, May 17. Since children have been required to stay at school until they ate- 14 years of age, a large number of the older girls are found in Bedfordshire to be stooping and round-shouldered. This is said by the school medical officer to he probably due to the great rate at which many of the girls have grown and the fact that the seating accommodation in the schools is not satisfactory for the taller girls. Before the war many of these taller girla used to leave school and go out to work after becoming 13. In 1014 the average height of "leavers” was under 4ft Sin or more in height. "Girls of this age.” says Dr Herdman, "are apt to overgrow their strength, and if the sitting space is at all cramped and the desks have not suitable backs the only way for the girl to rest is to lean forward. "With boys there does not- seem to be the same tendency to become roundsbouldered, since they do not grow so fust, and the exercise they take keeps Heir muscles in good order.”